Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Jean-luc Robert

Emil George Radulescu

Francois Guy Gerard Marie Vignon

Sheng-Wen Huang

Ramon Quido Erkamp

Man Nguyen

Shyam Bharat

Ameet Kumar Jain

Sanghamithra Korukonda

Jochen Kruecker

Hua Xie

Vijay Thakur Shamdasani

William Tao Shi

Shiwei Zhou

Luis Felipe Gutierrez

Bernard Joseph Savord

Amir Mohammad Tahmasebi Maraghoosh

Dirk Binnekamp

Richard Allen Snyder

Sheng-wen Huang

An acoustically registerable probe includes a transducer () to generate acoustic pulses, and a beamformer () coupled to the transducer to adjust a field of view of the acoustic pulses. The transducer is configured to iteratively send and receive acoustic energy with a decremented field of view angles to identify a position of the transducer () to other transducers and to reveal positions of the other transducers to the transducer through a medium carrying the acoustic pulses to register the transducer to the other transducers coupled to the medium.

Acoustic registration of internal and external ultrasound probes

A diagnostic ultrasound system has a 2D array transducer which is operated with 1×N patches, patches which are only a single element wide. The 'N' length of the patches extends in the elevation direction of a scanned 2D image plane, with the single element width extending in the lateral (azimuth) direction. Focusing is done along each patch in the elevation direction by a microbeamformer, and focusing in the lateral (azimuth) direction is done by the system beamformer. The minimal width of each patch in the azimuth direction enables the production of images highly resolved in the azimuthal plane of a 2D image, including the reception of highly resolved multilines for high frame rate imaging.

Two dimensional ultrasonic array transducer with one dimensional patches

In some embodiments, ultrasound receive beamforming yields beamformed samples, based upon which spatially intermediate pixels () are dynamically reconstructed. The samples have been correspondingly derived from acquisition through respectively different acoustic windows (). The reconstructing is further based on temporal weighting of the samples. In some embodiments, the sampling is via synchronized ultrasound phased-array data acquisition from a pair of side-by-side, spaced apart () acoustic windows respectively facing opposite sides of a central region () to be imaged. In particular, the pair is used interleavingly to dynamically scan jointly in a single lateral direction in imaging the region. The acquisition in the scan is, along a synchronization line () extending laterally across the region, monotonically progressive in that direction. Rotational scans respectively from the window pair are synchronizable into a composite scan of a moving object. The synchronization line () can be defined by the focuses of the transmits. The progression may strictly increase.

Synchronized phased array data acquisition from multiple acoustic windows

A system includes an acoustic probe and an acoustic imaging machine. The acoustic probe includes a substrate with first and second principal surfaces, a device insertion port with an opening passing through the substrate from the first principal surface to the second principal surface, and an array of acoustic transducer elements supported by the substrate and disposed around the device insertion port. The acoustic imaging machine may systematically vary the size and/or position of the active acoustic aperture of the probe by providing transmit signals to selected acoustic transducer elements to cause the array to transmit an acoustic probe signal to an area of interest and may record a feedback signal of the transmit signals from an acoustic receiver provided at a distal end of an interventional device passed through the device insertion port into the area of interest to find an active acoustic aperture having optimal acoustic performance.

System and method for probe calibration and interventional acoustic imaging

An acoustic probe connectable to an imaging system. The acoustic probe has a substrate with first and second principal surfaces, at least one device insertion port comprising an opening passing through the substrate from the first principal surface to the second principal surface, and an array of acoustic transducer elements supported by the substrate and disposed around the at least one device insertion port. The acoustic probe comprising an instrument guide disposed within the device insertion port, the instrument guide being configured to selectively allow the interventional device to move freely within the device insertion port and to selectively lock the interventional device within the device insertion port in response to a user input via a user interface connected to the acoustic probe.

Device for interventional acoustic imaging

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system and method translates an aperture across an array transducer which is less that the size of the array. At each aperture location a transmit beam is focused above, or alternatively below, the array and a region of interest being scanned from the aperture location, resulting in broad insonification of the region of interest. At the lateral ends of the array the aperture is no longer translated but the focal point of the transmit beam is translated from the same aperture position, preferably with tilting of the beam direction. Multiple receive beams are processed in response to each transmit event and the overlapping receive beams and echo locations are spatially combined to produce synthetic transmit focusing over the center of the image field and noise reduction by spatial compounding at the lateral ends of the image field.

Rapid synthetic focus ultrasonic imaging with large linear arrays

An ultrasound exposure safety processor is configured for spatially relating respective definitions of an imaging zone, and an extended dead-tissue zone that includes both a dead-tissue zone and a surrounding margin. Based on whether a push pulse focus is to be within the extended dead-tissue zone, the processor automatically decides a level of acoustic power with which the pulse is to be produced. If the pulse focus is to be within the extended dead-tissue zone, the pulse may be produced with a mechanical index (MI), a thermal index (TI), and/or a spatial-peak-temporal-average intensity (IspTA) that exceeds respectively 1.9, 6.0 and 720 milliwatts per square centimeter. The imaging zone may be definable interactively to dynamically trigger the deciding and the producing, with push pulse settings being dynamically derived automatically. A display of multiple push pulse sites allows user manipulation of spatial definition indicia to dynamically control displacement tracking.

Ultrasound shear wave elastography featuring therapy monitoring

A segmentation selection system includes a transducer () configured to transmit and receive imaging energy for imaging a subject. A signal processor () is configured to process imaging data received to generate processed image data. A segmentation module () is configured to generate a plurality of segmentations of the subject based on features or combinations of features of the imaging data and/or the processed image data. A selection mechanism () is configured to select one of the plurality of segmentations that best meets a criterion for performing a task.

Optimal ultrasound-based organ segmentation

An apparatus and method of imaging an imaging region () employ an acoustic transducer array (') to produce image data for the imaging region (), wherein there are one or more obstructions (---) between the acoustic transducer array (&#x2032;) and at least a portion () of the imaging region (). One or more processors exploit redundancy in transmit/receive pair paths among the acoustic transducers in the acoustic transducer array (&#x2032;) to compensate for missing image data of the imaging region () due to the one or more obstructions (---), and produce an image of the imaging region () from the compensated image data.

System and method for acoustic imaging with coherent compounding using intercostal spaces

Ultrasound motion-estimation includes issuing multiple ultrasound pulses, spaced apart from each other in a propagation direction of a shear wave, to track axial motion caused by the wave. The wave has been induced by an axially-directed push. Based on the motion, autocorrelation is used to estimate an axial displacement. The estimate is used as a starting point () in a time-domain based motion tracking algorithm for modifying the estimate so as to yield a modified displacement. The modification can constitute an improvement upon the estimate. The issuing may correspondingly occur from a number of acoustic windows, multiple ultrasound imaging probes imaging respectively via the windows. The autocorrelation, and algorithm, operate specifically on the imaging acquired via the pulses used in tracking the motion caused by the wave that was induced by the push, the push being a single push. The algorithm may involve cross-correlation over a search area incrementally increased subject to an image matching criterion (S).

Autocorrelation guided cross-correlation in ultrasound shear wave elastography

Depiction, within a single imaging modality, of an intervention device and body tissue surrounding the device, is improved by interrogating a subject that includes the intervention device and the tissue. An image is created using, for a parameter, a value, of the parameter (), better suited to one or the other of a device region depicting the intervention device and a tissue region depicting the tissue. The value is used to yield respectively either a first image () or a second image (). Respective presets may correspondingly have different values for the parameter. From jointly the first image and the second image which are both of the single modality, a combination is formed that is an image of the intervention device depicted as surrounded by the tissue. The combinations may be formed dynamically and ongoingly. An apparatus for the improved depiction may be configured for the use of the parameter in a stage prior to image processing conducted on a scan-converted image () if such image processing is employed.

Single-modality-based visual distinguishing of medical intervention device from tissue

In one aspect, an ultrasound receive beamformer is configured for one-way only beamforming of transmissive ultrasound using one-way delays. The receive beamforming in some embodiments is used to track, in real time, a catheter, needle or other surgical tool within an image of a region of interest. The tool can have embedded at its tip a small ultrasound transmitter or receiver for transmitting or receiving the transmissive ultrasound. Optionally, additional transducers are fixed along the tool to provide the orientation of the tool.

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Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Jean-luc Robert